Abstract
Natural experiments wherein preferred marriage partners are co-reared play a central role in testing the Westermarck hypothesis. This paper reviews two such hitherto largely neglected experiments. The case of the Karo Batak is outlined in hopes that other scholars will procure additional information; the case of the Oneida community is examined in detail. Genealogical records reveal that, despite practicing communal child-rearing, marriages did take place within Oneida. However, when records are compared with first-person accounts, it becomes clear that, owing to age- and gender-segregating practices, most endogamously marrying individuals probably did not share a history of extensive propinquity.
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Notes
One marriage occurred between individuals differing in age by 6 years; the next closest differed in age by 9 years. Following Taves’s criteria, I count these two marriages (which produced one and six offspring, respectively) in the non-cosocialized category. Because childcare was in the hands of a small number of adults, the existence of a substantial number of marriages between age-disparate community members does not challenge the Westermarck hypothesis, as the parties likely experienced limited propinquity during the childhood of the younger individual.
Commenting on an earlier draft of this paper, an anonymous reviewer noted that an indirect measure of the strength of the postulated Westermarckian effects would be to compare the rate of endogamy among Oneida community members (31 out of 68 individuals who married, or 45.6%) with that characteristic of surrounding areas at the time. However, in addition to overlooking the issue of cosocialization central to Westermarck’s hypothesis, this suggestion fails to take account of the extent to which cultural differences between community members and outsiders posed a sizeable obstacle to exogamy, precluding comparisons with marital patterns in surrounding towns.
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Acknowledgements
I thank Joan Silk for encouragement, Jennifer Fessler for stimulating discussions, and four anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback.
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Fessler, D.M.T. Neglected Natural Experiments Germane to the Westermarck Hypothesis. Hum Nat 18, 355–364 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-007-9021-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-007-9021-1